The typical working household has virtually no retirement savings, according to a study by the nonprofit National Institute on Retirement Security. When all households are included—not just those with retirement accounts—median retirement savings added up to just $2,500.

A former intern is suing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Dualstar entertainment, alleging she received neither pay nor college credit for four months of work. The former intern seeks to make the suit a class action by including 40 other interns.

Employees who no longer work because they lose access to child care are sometimes eligible for unemployment compensation. But they must first seek help in the form of a reasonable accommodation from their employer and be turned down. Even so, the worker still has to look for “suitable employment” to retain the benefits. He or she can’t reject every job offer based on inconvenient day-care scheduling.

More working-age Americans had health insurance in last year, even though the rate of coverage through employment-based health plans remained essentially flat. That’s according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Q: “We have a nonexempt salaried employee who is required to work 40 hours a week. She rarely works overtime, but when she does she gets 1.5 times her hourly rate. My question is, if she works less than 40 hours in a week, does not have any PTO left and does not make the time up, can we dock her salary?” – Maria, West Virginia

On Labor Day, President Obama signed the latest in a string of executive orders applicable to employers that contract with the federal government. Executive Order 13706 will permit certain employees working on federal contracts to earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. According to a White House fact sheet, the new paid leave mandate will affect approximately 300,000 workers ... and imposes substantial new obligations on many employers.